1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a male terminal fitting and to a method for producing male terminal fittings.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H05-202497 discloses a method for plating parts that project from a strip at specified intervals. There are many points to be improved for a method for producing parts projecting from the strip.
A known male terminal fitting is identified by the numeral 100 in FIGS. 13 and 14. The terminal fitting 100 has a leading end 101 and a base end 102. The leading end 101 is configured for connection with a female terminal fitting (not shown), and has plating applied to two opposite surfaces. The base end 102 will be fixed to an unillustrated circuit board, and has all four surfaces plated for the convenience of soldering.
The male terminal fittings 100 are produced by press-cutting and plating a flat base plate 103, as shown in FIG. 10. More particularly, the base plate 103 is plated on opposed surfaces 104, as shown in FIG. 11. Subsequently, a press-cutting step is performed on the base plate 103 to define the original forms 106 of the terminal fillings as shown in FIG. 12. Thus, the press-cut surfaces (see FIG. 12(B)) of the original forms 106 are not plated. As described above, the base ends 102 must have all the surfaces plated for soldering convenience. Thus, as shown in FIGS. 13 and 14, a second plating step is performed to the base ends 102 of the male terminal fillings 100, to form second plated surfaces 105.
Two plated surfaces 104, 105 are formed on the opposite surfaces of the base end 102 of the terminal fitting 100 and there is a possibility that the two plated surfaces 104, 105 may peel off each other. Additionally more time and cost are necessary for the two plating steps are necessary.
The plating applied to the surfaces 104, 105 often is gold. Thus, an area to which plating is applied should be small to minimize the amount of gold that is used. However, the plated surfaces 104, 105 are formed doubly on the two surfaces. Thus, there is a room for improvement.